Fun Times

WORLD CRUISE 2015

FUN TIMES 

Going AROUND THE WORLD is a great adventure to experience so many places, people, foods, animals, shopping, and nature.   Geography was my major in college, so travels are fun for me.  And, of course, I like to learn about the countries I visit including a map, flag, currency.  The following pictures give you a quick geographical look of the places that I visited.

Los Angeles, California   to   Papeete, Tahiti

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Papeete, Tahiti   to   Sydney, Australia

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Sydney, Australia   to   Bali, Indonesia

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Bali, Indonesia   to  Hong, Kong, China

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Hong Kong, China   to  Singapore

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Singapore   to  Mombasa, Kenya

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Mombasa, Kenya   to   Cape Town, South Africa

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Cape Town, South Africa   to   Fort Lauderdale, Florida

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And...... while visiting all of these places, I shared many beers with Colleen and Phil.  I am not a beer drinker unless I am very warm and the beers are really, really good.  I think I drank more beer in four months than in the last four years.  Lots of interesting labels, too.

Go to this link (or copy & paste in your browser) to see my movie of BEERS (3 minutes)

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipOcnTdMnZkp6EUaWAQtT8XPbbvO-C7r1OAEUUll/photo/AF1QipNKwl24PArsaV23XSUSRDeN-P6WnaWTVRpc85az

  
If that does not work, try this link (copy the next line, right click, select OPEN LINK)

https://goo.gl/photos/e2opD8WK9MjEx5c48
         

While I travel, I miss my cat, Bandit.  I do get updates about her from my cat sitters.  Still... it's not the same, so when I see a cat I take a picture.

Colleen and Phil have a great dog, Murphy, that they missed.  So, they took lots of dog pictures.   And, I added pictures of other animals, birds, critters.

Randy and I started writing this blog in 2011 as our way to keep our travel memories in a book/picture/movie format.  This way, we can read and re-live our adventures (rather than the old method of saving photos in a box or in a file and rarely go back to look). We always like to share our memories with the hope that our family and friends can virtually enjoy our travels. I did all of the photo edits and Randy was the sound mixer.  Without Randy, I will attempt to do my best to add sound to videos; please bare with me.

Continuing on....

The most exciting adventure during this cruise was my first African safari.  Twelve passengers eagerly departed the ship in Mombasa, Kenya to visit Galdessa Camp which is located in Tsavo East National Park (one of the largest national parks in the world).

It all started with a short chartered flight from Mombasa airport aboard a 12-passenger Cessna C208 run by Mombasa Air Safari over the Taru Desert to the Manyani Airstrip near the entrance gate to Tsavo East National Park.  Two safari driver-guides, Tomas and Dixon, met our group for our morning game drive of 2 hours on our way to Galdessa Camp.  Tomas encouraged us to be spotters and he quickly pointed out numerous animals and birds living in this arid environment.

Arriving at Galdessa Camp, we were greeted by the Masaai warriors who guided us to the lodge for a cold drink while we were introduced to the staff, the facilities, and rules (the area is NOT fenced so animals are free to roam the area along the banks of the Galana River, so call for a guard/escort).  We had time to freshen up before lunch in our rustic/luxury tented cabins.

Lunch was tasty with cold "Tasker" beers, then we had a few hours relaxing in our cabins to un-pack, nap, read, or watch the baboons and hippos across the river.  It was cloudy, not so hot. I loved sitting on the veranda, hearing the quiet mixed with baboon noises, smelling rain in the breeze, and missing Randy knowing that he would have really been thrilled, as I was.

Our afternoon game drive was nearly 3 hours of seeing more of the inhabitants of the park followed by 'Sundowners in the Bush' on a ridge overlooking this huge park.  Unfortunately, the clouds hid the sunset yet our group basked in our own wonders. We arrived back at camp after dark, had a short time to clean-up before a delicious dinner, and made plans for the next day.  It was a long day of travel, excitement, and 5-1/2 hours of game drives so we were all ready for bed before 9pm; our guards escorted us to our respective cabins (Elvis was my guard.  We all know that Elvis is alive somewhere.).  It was a warm night; I wanted to sit on the veranda for some cool air yet hesitated, knowing that animals were wandering around.

Now... enjoy my movie of Galdessa Day One (just over 6 minutes).

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipOcnTdMnZkp6EUaWAQtT8XPbbvO-C7r1OAEUUll/photo/AF1QipNXX_hzPqUjfnNqSCFE6BuOiZ_RCPKY2QgO2K_6

If that does not work, try this link (copy the next line, right click, select OPEN LINK)

https://goo.gl/photos/52Zn4B2LtiadzmBo9

A 0530 wake-up call to get ready for Day Two; coffee/tea/juice and fruit; then 'get in the truck' for our morning adventure.  Many different animals in the morning hours.  Saw a pack of wild dogs still hunting; a small group of dik-diks running in circles (looked like small rabbits); and gizelles practicing their fighting skills.  We arrived at Lugards Falls to meet a tracker, ranger, and guard for this morning's 'walking safari' along the river.  It was easy walking, finding tracks or animal poop, watching the hippos watching us.

Our tracker showed us how to start a fire.  We met our drivers again to begin the trek back to camp.  Rounding a bend, we arrived at a dry river bed for 'Breakfast in the Wild' - the camp cook and staff provided us with a scrumptious meal.

At camp for a quick 'pee break', Tomas and Dixon said "let's go find the lions" so off we went for another 3 hours of game spotting before lunch.  We saw lots of animals and birds but no lions.  More of those COLD Tasker beers and a short nap.

Early afternoon, our guides knew where to go to find the lions (they talked with, or overheard, other guides from other camps).  Hit the road, Tomas, let's go!  We drove a long distance while spotting elephants, impala, dik diks, giraffes, birds and more to reach the lion area.  There were 8 other trucks loaded with tourists, as well as us, trying to find the lions.

Tomas found them being stalked by a safari truck.  Sad to see the truck harassing the lion just so people could take pictures.  Then, that truck got stuck in the mud (they were fined by the park rangers and needed a tow truck to pull them out).  We saw the lions, it was getting dark, and we had a long drive back to camp.  Nevertheless, we now saw the night animals coming out - jackals and hyenas.

Cooler weather, good food, cold beer, nice wine.  Lots of laughs as we talked about everything we saw that day during our 9 hours of 'game viewing'.  Lots of stars tonight.  At my cabin, I cooled down with another shower and sat on the veranda with a glass of wine listening for the 'wild sounds'.

Click this link (or copy & paste in your browser) for Galdessa Day Two movie (just over 7 minutes).

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipOcnTdMnZkp6EUaWAQtT8XPbbvO-C7r1OAEUUll/photo/AF1QipPVuP4Z685WaY-wpAp_u2Tp-Z8b8EeWbnhFChkE

If that does not work, try this link  (copy the next line, right click, select OPEN LINK)
https://goo.gl/photos/1kjtSmMU8qvsp8Z8A

Day Three began with geese honking, hippos swimming down river, and hippos snorting as they walked through camp (I heard that snorting noise most of the night).  After breakfast in the main lodge, we said our 'good-byes' to the staff and started our game drive to the park exit and the airstrip.  We spotted more impala, elephants, giraffes, dik dik, waterbuck, baboon, birds, and the hawker at the gift shop at the park gate.  We even spotted a snake (luckily it was dead).  The Mombasa Air Safari plane arrived later than scheduled but we still had time to return to Mombasa and connect with FastJet (yes, that was the name) for the flight to Zanzibar, Tanzania.

We had a guided tour through Zanzibar, in a heavy downpour, before boarding the Silver Whisper, returning in time for lunch. 

Click this link for Galdessa Day Three movie (about 2 minutes).

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipOcnTdMnZkp6EUaWAQtT8XPbbvO-C7r1OAEUUll/photo/AF1QipNTCj3rKNt9OCVkirkQSQLLkL761q5BGWH18sKG

If that does not work, try this link (copy the next line, right click, select OPEN LINK)

https://goo.gl/photos/LpdwRBpMNV7faYMVA

This was an enthralling experience shared by a fun bunch of people who all had a sensational time.  Tomas thanked us for being such a wonderful group, we became great spotters, and he liked it when we yelled to him "Hit the road, Tomas".  Thousands of pictures were taken; the videos help give some perspective to the big wide open; it's difficult to reduce the number of pictures to 'just the highlights'. We did get lots of 'butt shots'.

Time to end this report, for now.  There is so much more of my adventures to tell and movies to watch.   More to come . . . .

Hugs to all, Lourae